Speaker 1: They bite because they're hungry, and testicles sit nicely in
Speaker 1: their mouth. Seriously, these guys couldn't have stripped any hotter
Speaker 1: if that'd been killed on the day. Move on to
Speaker 1: the next plug, and can you start map? You know
Speaker 1: it's gonna take you a few years. It's not freaking
Speaker 1: internet overnight ship. I'm sure I missed a couple of
Speaker 1: fish die off catastrophes, and if I missed one of
Speaker 1: the ones in your area, let us know where you're
Speaker 1: not catching fish anymore. Good morning, degenerate anglers, and welcome
Speaker 1: to Bend to the fishing podcast that you insist wasn't
Speaker 1: as big as you thought it was the second it
Speaker 1: snaps your line because you were high sticking. I'm Joe
Speaker 1: Surmelli A Miles Nulty, and I appreciate that intro very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you, because if there's one constant in the angling
Speaker 1: community among us anglers, and I don't care who you are,
Speaker 1: what you fish for, how you fish, whatever, how long
Speaker 1: you've been doing it, we all lie, and we particularly
Speaker 1: lie and we lose fish. It's just something that we
Speaker 1: do absolutely and I can take it, and I can
Speaker 1: take it a step further like um in many respects.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to hook it, Like, how many
Speaker 1: times have you been fishing? Right at least I do that?
Speaker 1: You get hit, you botch it for whatever reason, and
Speaker 1: somebody else on the boat sees it happen and goes,
Speaker 1: did you just get bit? And the reaction is so
Speaker 1: often Yeah, yeah, it was a little fish. Though it's
Speaker 1: a little one. It's a little guy, a little twelve inure,
Speaker 1: but it could have been a twenty in brown and
Speaker 1: you know it, and you're still gonna say that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's yeah, that's kind of my That's interesting because
Speaker 1: like too, if I'm being honest here, and I usually am,
Speaker 1: I go the other way, like because any fish that
Speaker 1: I'm lose or miss are monsters. To clarify, I might
Speaker 1: have lost a monster. I'm just saying I never know,
Speaker 1: but like in my mind, that's what I tell myself
Speaker 1: and others who are around me. If I don't catch
Speaker 1: the fish and I don't, I think it's personally because
Speaker 1: I get so jacked, Like if none, if it's a dink, right,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying like I turn a four inch or
Speaker 1: into a trophy, but if I hook a good fish,
Speaker 1: my mind will just conjure at image, like I'm I
Speaker 1: get this image of of something that's much larger than
Speaker 1: what's actually on the line. Oftentimes, when I think I've
Speaker 1: got a good one, that I do land it right,
Speaker 1: like like I superimpose the image of the fish that
Speaker 1: I want to be fighting onto the fish that I'm
Speaker 1: actually fighting. And if I land it, the fantasy is
Speaker 1: out the window, it's gone, it's shattered. But if I
Speaker 1: lose it, I get to hold onto that fantasy and
Speaker 1: that remains the biggest fish anyone in the boat has
Speaker 1: ever seen. Wow, that's see, that's interesting, see because this
Speaker 1: is where we differ, Like where where where you're like
Speaker 1: hopeful optimism crashes into my my pervasive cynicism. Hey, this
Speaker 1: is what happens. So so you get all juice stuff
Speaker 1: and imagine greatness. I'm just assuming the worst all the time.
Speaker 1: But it's like this. It generally happens when I'm fishing
Speaker 1: with other people, Like it only works like I need witnesses,
Speaker 1: and I swear it's almost like involuntary, But I think
Speaker 1: it happens more out of anger and embarrassment than anything.
Speaker 1: Because when I lose a fish, like and I know
Speaker 1: it's a big one. I just want to move on,
Speaker 1: Like I'm inside, I'm seating, and I don't really I
Speaker 1: don't really like yeah, like I'm saying like that's that's
Speaker 1: that's my point. Like you have like a fish come
Speaker 1: up and flash your streamer and like somebody else on
Speaker 1: the boat sees that line, godink and did you get
Speaker 1: bit and like you were sleeping on it or whatever
Speaker 1: it is right, and it's like I'm a bitch. That
Speaker 1: was twenty two inch brown, Like I'm like, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a little one. Because I don't really feel like
Speaker 1: dissecting like why that just happened and how I just
Speaker 1: set up. I just want to move on, like I
Speaker 1: don't want to dwell on it, so my gut is
Speaker 1: not to be like, oh that was a freaking giant
Speaker 1: because then you know people are like, well, why didn't
Speaker 1: you should have done this? Why did you strip him?
Speaker 1: Or once you pause, I just want to move on.
Speaker 1: You know, you you painted mind is optimist stick and
Speaker 1: but I I think my way is just as much
Speaker 1: an ego thing as what you're talking about. Like I
Speaker 1: want everyone in the boat, including myself, to think I
Speaker 1: just hooked mega that they missed right, like they didn't
Speaker 1: get mega. I did, even if I even if I
Speaker 1: missed it, right, I see it that way too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can, this is true. I remember the details of
Speaker 1: big fish I lost, down to every little iota of
Speaker 1: the weather, where I was, what I was doing. I
Speaker 1: can go back more than thirty years and recount exact
Speaker 1: stories of big fish I lost. Those ones. They stick
Speaker 1: with me, sure, I think. I think the story that
Speaker 1: encapsulates the point that we're talking about right now. I
Speaker 1: was fishing the Yellowstone with my closest fishing buddy at
Speaker 1: the time, and the conditions. It was one of those
Speaker 1: days where you just you knew, big trout we're going
Speaker 1: to get caught. You know. We're on the ass end
Speaker 1: of runoff, and the water was high, but it was
Speaker 1: dropping and it had that emerald green like the oh
Speaker 1: that beautiful, and the flow was like it was high,
Speaker 1: it was ripping, so all the fish were pushing into
Speaker 1: the soft water on the banks, the big fish and
Speaker 1: the little fish. And when that's going on, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what's happening. The big fish is just chowing
Speaker 1: on all those little fish because they got no place
Speaker 1: to hide. And we were doing well on this particular day,
Speaker 1: like we were consistently getting solid fish, but we hadn't
Speaker 1: got the fish we were after and the one we
Speaker 1: knew we could get that day. It was just one
Speaker 1: of those days. And I made this perfect cast into
Speaker 1: the soft pocket and I just got slammed. Right. I
Speaker 1: was fly fishing this, I was throwing streams. I was
Speaker 1: throwing a nine weight for trout, and I could not
Speaker 1: turn this fish. It was a big, heavy, stink tips giant,
Speaker 1: giant streamer, and like I got slammed and I could
Speaker 1: not turn. It takes off straight up stream. I'm fighting.
Speaker 1: I fight it for like I thought it for a
Speaker 1: good thirty seconds before the hook pulled. Now, I never
Speaker 1: saw that fish. It is very possible that I gaffed
Speaker 1: a sixteen incher right in the side and that thing
Speaker 1: turned into the current and just dragged me. Right, But
Speaker 1: that's not the story that I tell anybody else who
Speaker 1: was there or myself or were you right now, Because
Speaker 1: in my mind, I know I had a thirty in
Speaker 1: brown that this is this is too good, right, this
Speaker 1: is too funny, because the story I have, man, it
Speaker 1: is exactly like that. But I came to the exact
Speaker 1: opposite conclusion. So I was mousing for Browns at night
Speaker 1: with my buddy Joe Dimo Theris, who's been on the
Speaker 1: show several times, and man, it was it was a
Speaker 1: really slow night, Like we went miles without touching of fish.
Speaker 1: And you know what happens when that happens, like you
Speaker 1: start to start to like zone out a little bit
Speaker 1: um and then out of nowhere, just when you start
Speaker 1: to zone out, you get jacked. And that's exactly what
Speaker 1: happened to me. And just like your story, I swung
Speaker 1: on this fish and I could not move it. I
Speaker 1: just could not move and I was only fishing a
Speaker 1: sixth weight I think. And this fish, it gave me
Speaker 1: three big headshakes but I don't know how to describe
Speaker 1: them other than wide, like it wasn't like a fish,
Speaker 1: just like jiggling its head real fast, like a little shaker,
Speaker 1: Like this was like the wall wall and it's pulsing
Speaker 1: the frigging rod And I got I got these few
Speaker 1: shakes out of it and in the fly pole, and
Speaker 1: I instantly go, that was really weird. I wonder if
Speaker 1: that was a foul hook fish, right, I just and
Speaker 1: I I knew Darren, well it wasn't. But I just
Speaker 1: went to the instant downplay. Also advantage because it's dark,
Speaker 1: so it's like, how much did Joe really see? Right?
Speaker 1: I couldn't have seen what just happened right then and there.
Speaker 1: And Joe d who keeps it real always just like, no,
Speaker 1: that was a giant ass brown trout that you just lost.
Speaker 1: So same story, nearly identical stories, different mindset, totally opposite reaction.
Speaker 1: I will say, I'm convinced, however, that either of us
Speaker 1: were throwing a poppy mcpop face from thirteen Fishing, those
Speaker 1: fish would have stayed pinned because then the sticky probably yes,
Speaker 1: but then I wouldn't have been mousing or fly fishing.
Speaker 1: But I can attest to the sharpness of the hooks
Speaker 1: on that particular papo. Also sharp is our ability to
Speaker 1: just work in a plug for our sponsored thirteen Fishing,
Speaker 1: Just like that. We talk a lot about thirteen rods
Speaker 1: and reels, but you, uh, you should, you should not
Speaker 1: forget their lures. We have in the aforementioned and beautifully
Speaker 1: named poppy make pop face. Uh, it's just no kidding,
Speaker 1: It's just a well made, just badass all around popper.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of the clear perch pattern for
Speaker 1: Smalley's So I have not thrown that one. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to get that an arsenal. And I'm glad to
Speaker 1: know there's a fish out there that you still know
Speaker 1: how to land, but put trouble on it and you
Speaker 1: can get them in, because apparently we both suck at
Speaker 1: landing big trout, but personal shortcomings aside. It's it is
Speaker 1: appropriate that you brought up night fishing for truck, because
Speaker 1: that's what's happening in the story. We've got for smooth
Speaker 1: Moves this week. This is part of the show where
Speaker 1: we let guide and captains and shop kids and anyone
Speaker 1: else in the fishing industry tell us tales of dumb
Speaker 1: ship their clients have done. And we're bringing back our
Speaker 1: good friend and ozark trout grew Steve Daly. It makes you,
Speaker 1: it makes you feel any better. At least you got
Speaker 1: the chance to like field those three headshakes. You've got
Speaker 1: the connection with your giant night brown for a few seconds.
Speaker 1: Because the dufus and the saga we're all about to hear,
Speaker 1: he never got that chance. Why back again is the
Speaker 1: the the man, the myth, the legend, the infamous Steve
Speaker 1: Daly who it's been too long since we've actually talked, Steve.
Speaker 1: I don't know how long ago was that we had
Speaker 1: last had you on, but whatever it was, it was
Speaker 1: too long. You've been too busy, like making money or whatever. Right,
Speaker 1: so you've been you've been out collecting move moves stories
Speaker 1: about stupid ship that's been going on, and supposedly you
Speaker 1: have a great one for us. So yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we need to explain that. Like as busy as as
Speaker 1: Steve is, like you came to us, you were like
Speaker 1: I need I have to tell this story. So this
Speaker 1: has got to be, like it's got to be a
Speaker 1: good one. Okay. So I've had these two reprobates in
Speaker 1: those of the boat that I know quite well, and
Speaker 1: they've called me into taking them night fishing because it
Speaker 1: is going to be and it has the prospects. There's
Speaker 1: some rising water coming after dark, and there was an
Speaker 1: unusual water pattern that we don't usually get. Anyway, We've
Speaker 1: got in a dark and it's beautiful evening floating on
Speaker 1: get down the river, the sun setting, it's all picturesque,
Speaker 1: and we start fishing and there's there's one instruction I'm
Speaker 1: trying to give all night because some buggers aren't listening.
Speaker 1: Is slow down, That's the That's always been the key
Speaker 1: for me. Did you get out there and you think, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to catch a big fish. It's it's all
Speaker 1: going to happen, and the adrenaline and cast at the
Speaker 1: cast more cast more, cast castre that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: And it's like slow down and slow down and repetitive,
Speaker 1: mind numbingly repetitive instruction. The guide sitting there in the oars.
Speaker 1: So we've managed to go along. We've pulled up, and
Speaker 1: the fish is not great, partly because they can't actually
Speaker 1: track down the flies. They're coming back at the speed
Speaker 1: of sound. And seriously, these guys couldn't have stripped any
Speaker 1: harder if they've been fueled on cocaine. All right, So
Speaker 1: we've got down and the night's gone, and we've got
Speaker 1: one small brown that fells that stupidly swam into the fly,
Speaker 1: and we've got a few rainbows that you barely want
Speaker 1: to talk about, and we've got down to the end,
Speaker 1: and seriously, they've almost worn out the beer. There's one
Speaker 1: beer left on the boat. As we come back to
Speaker 1: the last little rock shelf from this, a little bit
Speaker 1: of turbulent water on the downstream side, and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: we're going to pull up here in it. This is
Speaker 1: my last shot right the boat ramps at seventy yards away.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get these guys in a fish because
Speaker 1: I'd really like to see them catch a good fish
Speaker 1: for at least the effort and factually worn the fingers
Speaker 1: out scripping um. Did I mentioned they should slow down again?
Speaker 1: This is about how the conversations going. And we're sitting
Speaker 1: there at this edge and just like they've just whipped
Speaker 1: it through and you know, it's basically a swing. Just
Speaker 1: stay in contact with that fly and let it happen.
Speaker 1: Wait for the bump. And finally one of them sits
Speaker 1: down and says I'm done. I'm gonna have the last beer.
Speaker 1: And the other one in the back is just like,
Speaker 1: I think he's tangled up or something stupid. And I
Speaker 1: did the stupid thing. I said, let me have that, right,
Speaker 1: let me have and it's a boat ramp fish on board.
Speaker 1: I've been trying to work out how I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell these guys and it's like, just spin the evening
Speaker 1: out for another fifteen minutes. Let's go spaghetti my and
Speaker 1: a couple of glasses of red wine and you know,
Speaker 1: and enjoy the evening. And I make three casts. The
Speaker 1: second one I feel this tap and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: when I don't say anything. In the third cast, whap
Speaker 1: hits it said him to it. It comes back and
Speaker 1: because it's night fishing, it comes back like a log
Speaker 1: to Yeah. Yeah, they don't pull that, and seemingly at
Speaker 1: night and this thing just comes. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about that when you're done. But that's interesting you bring
Speaker 1: that up. I've noticed that too, that they don't fight
Speaker 1: at nate. They don't fight it nate, not like not
Speaker 1: like a daytime. And you know, we shine the light
Speaker 1: over the side, and here's the fish and I'm looking
Speaker 1: at now I'm feeling really bad. The boys are actually
Speaker 1: quite exciting because it's the first indecent fish they've seen
Speaker 1: all night and the fact that they're idiot guy has
Speaker 1: swung the rod Joe man, you know, the saddest but
Speaker 1: the old story. You know, you know who the idiot burned.
Speaker 1: The name was no Viles, Bloody Dolty. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this was all about you, that was this was all
Speaker 1: about me. This is my smooth move in Daly's boat,
Speaker 1: because here's the scene. But we're talking smooth moves. We've
Speaker 1: all done them, guide not guide, whatever, journalist, photographer, We've
Speaker 1: all done that stupid ship. And that's the Isn't that
Speaker 1: the fishing? You took a whole night flow in Arkansas
Speaker 1: and just burned your flies all night long. I will,
Speaker 1: I will, I will admit, I will admit to him
Speaker 1: to do this. I should also say this is purely
Speaker 1: an act of hubers, because at that time I was
Speaker 1: at the height of my guiding career. I really felt
Speaker 1: like I was dialed into the streamer scene in my
Speaker 1: local waters, and so I was fishing it the way
Speaker 1: I knew was gonna work on the big brown shop
Speaker 1: for me. And Dally kept saying, like, you know, you
Speaker 1: might want to slow down, and I'm like, I know
Speaker 1: how to catch big brown shout, like I know how
Speaker 1: to fish stream dude, Like I appreciate it, but I
Speaker 1: know how to do this, And I would not listen
Speaker 1: until he literally said, well, let me have a crack
Speaker 1: at It took three casts and stuck at twenty seven
Speaker 1: right in front of me. It was it was one
Speaker 1: of those It was one of those times I will
Speaker 1: never forget because I I had to take that humility
Speaker 1: pill to recognize that even if I think I know
Speaker 1: the situation, that I know the style of fishing, that
Speaker 1: I know the fish, I don't necessarily know it everywhere
Speaker 1: and I was wrong. It's fascinating to me though, because
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a lack of It's not trout
Speaker 1: fishing ability, it's like night fishing ability, because everything you do,
Speaker 1: like even striper's like you're throwing a black plug at night.
Speaker 1: It's like, how do I reel that? Like pain? Everything
Speaker 1: is slow? Like I feel like that's any predator fishing
Speaker 1: at night slow as the way to go. So was
Speaker 1: that was that like A had you not night fished much? Then?
Speaker 1: I mean I have had. I have night fish, but
Speaker 1: not nearly as much as you two guys. I think
Speaker 1: that's true. You don't. The rivers around here are not
Speaker 1: necessarily safe to float at night because water. I feel
Speaker 1: like I need to reciprocate and now like dig up
Speaker 1: a guide who can smooth moves me because I know
Speaker 1: that they're out there. This took me way off. At
Speaker 1: what point in the story did you realize this was
Speaker 1: about you? I imagine as soon as you started up, dude,
Speaker 1: Oh you said, of course, I don't. I feel like
Speaker 1: a horse's ass. No work perfectly funny. I think it's hysterical.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, this is less
Speaker 1: about smooth move. Seriously, this is this is not about
Speaker 1: just customers. We just get to get the stories because
Speaker 1: we see more of them. It's about stupid people doing
Speaker 1: stupid ship when they're fishing, when it comes down to it,
Speaker 1: and that's the that's the joy, because yeah, I get
Speaker 1: people in my boat all the time when you comers
Speaker 1: and go yeah, it's like you don't need to be
Speaker 1: any good to love this game and have a great time, right. Truly,
Speaker 1: I hope that every story I tell about clients it's
Speaker 1: because I love those clients and I love those other
Speaker 1: bits because they're really funny. Doesn't mean I don't like them.
Speaker 1: That's the thing about this guy. We all screw this
Speaker 1: up all the time, and embracing our own screw ups
Speaker 1: and being able to laugh at him with our buddies
Speaker 1: is half the fun of fishing. What a twist man
Speaker 1: for everyone listening, No joke, I honestly had no idea
Speaker 1: that was going to be a story about Miles I was.
Speaker 1: I was genuinely surprised, and I actually, man, that was
Speaker 1: that was very well played, beautiful played. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: I was, I will. I will say I was proud
Speaker 1: of that idea when it came to me when I
Speaker 1: was not sleeping one night, I was like to do
Speaker 1: this because we we dog on all these random strangers
Speaker 1: in the the statement, right, and most of them, most of
Speaker 1: them probably deserve it. But it's not like you were,
Speaker 1: I are above criticism, right, Nope. We we did that
Speaker 1: whole show a couple of weeks ago about flexing and
Speaker 1: fishing and sometimes sometimes it's easy to fly X when
Speaker 1: you're the guide. And this goes for paid guides and
Speaker 1: informal guides, Like anytime you're in that kind of role
Speaker 1: of of leading, you're on your homewater, you know what's
Speaker 1: going on, and you get to sit there and critique
Speaker 1: someone else's fishing, but you never actually have to fish yourself. Right,
Speaker 1: And and when I get thrust out of my comfort
Speaker 1: zone and I have to be the angler on someone
Speaker 1: else's boat, on their water, not knowing exactly what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: there's a good chance I'm gonna screw it up. And
Speaker 1: I admit that I learned from it, but I screwed up.
Speaker 1: I commend you. I commend you. I thought I was
Speaker 1: burying my soul talking about downplaying the size of some fish.
Speaker 1: I goofed, but that was next level, So good on you. Um. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let's find out who our audio engineer, Phil is going
Speaker 1: to commend this week. Following the Battle Royale we tend
Speaker 1: to sometimes now and again referred to as fish news,
Speaker 1: fish news. That escalated quickly, So we mentioned last week
Speaker 1: that we'd be unveiling a pretty significant contest this week.
Speaker 1: More can then the previous contest. And if you subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Fishing Weekly newsletter, and we hope that you do, UM,
Speaker 1: you you already know what's up. Okay, you've got the
Speaker 1: inside track. But for those of you that don't pay attention,
Speaker 1: because um, one of you is going to get to
Speaker 1: be on bent with me and Miles. That is correct.
Speaker 1: One lucky winner, one very very lucky winner, super lucky,
Speaker 1: so lucky. It's gonna get to record a smooth move
Speaker 1: segment with us. It's gonna be remote. We're not like,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna fly out to sit in Joe's home
Speaker 1: office or my spare bedroom slash office slash child playroom.
Speaker 1: But we do want to record your story about the
Speaker 1: most idiotic, insane, funny, crazy, or just what the thing
Speaker 1: you've ever seen or done while out fishing. That's right,
Speaker 1: and to sweeten the pot, said winner will also get
Speaker 1: him or herself a swag pack of meat Eator fishing
Speaker 1: peril and stickers. Plus we'll throw in some bent stickables
Speaker 1: because that's what we do. But I mean, the bigger
Speaker 1: payout is obviously the fifteen minutes of quasi semi fame,
Speaker 1: if you'd call it for for you and yeah for
Speaker 1: you in the world of degenerate anglers, so true, all
Speaker 1: your other degenerates will be jealous to enter. All you
Speaker 1: gotta do is go to the meat eater dot com
Speaker 1: slash get bent all right, follow the instructions, share your story.
Speaker 1: You can write as much as you want. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get I'm gonna give you a little hint here we
Speaker 1: are into the whole brevity thing. We are less is more,
Speaker 1: So give us the gist, give us, give us the lure,
Speaker 1: the hook, whatever you whatever you wanna call it. Uh.
Speaker 1: This contest is open to everyone, but you bent die
Speaker 1: hard to know what we like and you know how
Speaker 1: to get our attention, So we're we're privileging you. You do,
Speaker 1: you do, and you've got until July to enter and
Speaker 1: get our attention. We'll pick a winner. Miles and I
Speaker 1: are doing the picking, of course, shortly after that, and
Speaker 1: set up a time to record with you, which is
Speaker 1: seriously very easy and chill like. It's not a scary production.
Speaker 1: Anyone can do it, you know, So don't worry. You
Speaker 1: don't need a microphone, you don't need you You just
Speaker 1: need to be able to talk and tell a good story.
Speaker 1: We'll do this and we'll all hang out, will crack
Speaker 1: a beer, will shoot the ship digitally for a bit.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be good times. You know what else, though,
Speaker 1: is a really good time m drinking beer or other
Speaker 1: beverages with our our audio engineer, Phil. He's just such
Speaker 1: a such a cool, fun, hilarious, handsome person. And I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not just saying that because fish News is
Speaker 1: a competition where Joe and I do not know which
Speaker 1: story is the other guys bringing the table, and that
Speaker 1: Phil will pass judgment on us at the end. That's
Speaker 1: I'm saying it because I mean it. Phil from the
Speaker 1: bottom of my heart. So it's your lead this week. Man,
Speaker 1: what do you guys have at it? Yeah, okay, you
Speaker 1: aren't saying any of that to get on Phil's good night,
Speaker 1: all right, So maybe Phil will enjoy a feel good
Speaker 1: story that I'm starting with here. UM. And this one
Speaker 1: comes to us from the Washington Post alright headline, WAPO
Speaker 1: right headline, when the pandemic closed this Maryland school, He
Speaker 1: saved the trout. Okay, it's funky one, right, Okay, it's
Speaker 1: I I like this one. So I'm sure some of
Speaker 1: you guys are aware of the program called Trout in
Speaker 1: the classroom. Miles, I know you you've heard of this.
Speaker 1: So it's run by Trout Unlimited, UM. And what they
Speaker 1: do is provide schools with tanks, filters, water, chillers, food,
Speaker 1: and about a hundred fertilized rainbow trout eggs. And the
Speaker 1: kids get to raise trout at school, right. And they
Speaker 1: tend to get these setups in the December, and the
Speaker 1: kids care for the trout and by May the fish
Speaker 1: are usually about two inches long, and just before school
Speaker 1: lets out. The part of the fund is they release
Speaker 1: these fingerlings into a local stream. UM and just in
Speaker 1: case sister Helen Laurett, the principle at Incarnation School, where
Speaker 1: I went as listening, where were you on this one? Okay,
Speaker 1: because this is amazing and I'd have been all about it.
Speaker 1: We were only ever given rosary beads and told to
Speaker 1: sit quietly and let the Holy Spirit grow within our hearts.
Speaker 1: Um So, Anyway, the fifth graders at Westbrook Elementary School
Speaker 1: in Bethesda, Maryland were all set up to raise their trout,
Speaker 1: and then the pandemic hit, and needless to say, uh,
Speaker 1: nobody was particularly concerned about the fate of those trout, except,
Speaker 1: of course, for one man, Malik Walker, the school's services
Speaker 1: manager right now, Being a pretty avid angler and seeing
Speaker 1: that he was only one of a very few people
Speaker 1: that had access to the school on a daily basis
Speaker 1: through the entire lockdown, he decided he was going to
Speaker 1: care for these trout. But this ended up becoming like
Speaker 1: quite the undertaking and learning experience for Walker, because he
Speaker 1: he admits in the story that while he's caught plenty
Speaker 1: of fish, he's he's never raised them. Okay, So, according
Speaker 1: to the story, about fifty fish died in the first
Speaker 1: two weeks, most because they're apparently jumpers. And a little
Speaker 1: little trout would leap out of the tank. So you know,
Speaker 1: he secured the lid. That was kind of step one.
Speaker 1: And then then dude just went on YouTube to figure
Speaker 1: out like, okay, what do I that's what you did?
Speaker 1: Any problem, it's on YouTube, right And for a while
Speaker 1: it was fine. He fed the trout and figured out
Speaker 1: the proper tank cleaning schedule and all that stuff. But
Speaker 1: eventually the food that provided food ran out. So what
Speaker 1: did he do on a weekly basis? He would like
Speaker 1: hunt down spiders and crickets and grubs and anything he
Speaker 1: thought would fit in those tiny trout mouths. Okay, good
Speaker 1: on him. So now the school year ends now at summer,
Speaker 1: and before you know it, it's fall. And remember the
Speaker 1: kids usually released the trout at two inches. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: Walker did lose a lot of trout along the way.
Speaker 1: But by December twenty, a full year after the eggs arrived,
Speaker 1: he had fifteen foot long rainbow trout. And listen, while
Speaker 1: I realized that's not many compared to the starting number
Speaker 1: of eggs the school had, that's impressive when you understand
Speaker 1: how delicate trout are like. They are extremely difficult to
Speaker 1: raise and keep in captivity. Everything has to be perfect,
Speaker 1: so that's quite an impressive feat anyway. So then last
Speaker 1: December they finally they transferred the remaining trout to coolers,
Speaker 1: and some of the students got to go help release
Speaker 1: those fish into the Pawtuxet River, but Walker did not
Speaker 1: go because he got attached to his trout. He was
Speaker 1: too sad, and in the story he even said, yeah,
Speaker 1: he even said he's kind of giving up on on
Speaker 1: freshwater fishing now and only targeting saltwater fish because he
Speaker 1: bonded with those fifteen trout. Now, I could be a
Speaker 1: sicko and point out that Walker's rainbows are at least
Speaker 1: gonna taste like more than a wet paper towel because
Speaker 1: they've at least been eating natural forage instead of the
Speaker 1: friskies cat food like all the other stockers. But won't.
Speaker 1: I won't say that, okay, because for Walker's sake, I
Speaker 1: really hope none of his fifteen trout have already been
Speaker 1: run through with a wonder boner story. I did not
Speaker 1: see that coming. You threw me, That's all I got.
Speaker 1: What do you You really knocked me off balance with
Speaker 1: the wonder boner. That's what they do you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's a very heartwarming story. I don't know
Speaker 1: about his I don't know how he came to the
Speaker 1: conclusion that, like, well, freshwater fish are now friends, but
Speaker 1: saltwater fish remained the folks. I don't quite get that,
Speaker 1: but still striper in the eyes before he clubs it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Sure, whatever whatever you gotta
Speaker 1: do to get through the day, and I'll I will
Speaker 1: say that I appreciate like the upbeat, positive, heartwarming, you know, like,
Speaker 1: what's the word I'm looking for? Human interest suspect you
Speaker 1: took to lead off today's news, and I am going
Speaker 1: to go the opposite direction, entirely not interested in humans
Speaker 1: at all. No, no one's gonna be happy and feel
Speaker 1: good at the end of this story. And I will
Speaker 1: say that this week I'm doing something a little different.
Speaker 1: Joe doesn't know this yet. He's finding out too. I
Speaker 1: noticed the theme when doing my fish news research this week.
Speaker 1: So what I'm doing is, instead of doing two stories,
Speaker 1: I just decided to gather a whole bunch of related
Speaker 1: stories into one big story up. I'm doubling down with
Speaker 1: with one giant fish news roundup. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the main takeaway that I got from the reading I
Speaker 1: did this week is that I'm glad I'm not a fish.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, might have been a shitty year to
Speaker 1: be a person, but is shaping up to be a
Speaker 1: just exceptionally shitty year for fish. I'm I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you have heard about or are living through, the unusually hot,
Speaker 1: dry weather that's roasting most of the country this summer. Well,
Speaker 1: for us, right that means we we might have to
Speaker 1: spend our days mainlining a c and just facing pints
Speaker 1: of ice cream for health reasons, you know, for your health,
Speaker 1: cool off, for your health, for your health. But for
Speaker 1: fish the stakes are somewhat higher. If you go on
Speaker 1: on the interwebs right now and you search fish kill,
Speaker 1: you will find a disturbing littany stories. So in the
Speaker 1: interest of keeping you all informed, I'm just gonna give
Speaker 1: an overview of of the fishy death and destruction going
Speaker 1: on moving from west to east Phil. This needs a
Speaker 1: sound bite right here or something something some kind of
Speaker 1: depending surprises very don't look at shut your eyes, Mary,
Speaker 1: and don't look at it no matter what happens. The
Speaker 1: Klamath River flows along the Oregon California border and was
Speaker 1: once a thriving salmon and steelhead fishery, the Klamath River
Speaker 1: basin is currently experiencing extreme and exceptional drought, the worst
Speaker 1: in four decades. While I'm going to focus on the
Speaker 1: fish and fisheries aspect of the story, agriculture in the
Speaker 1: area will also be decimated again this year, so let's
Speaker 1: hold that too. Salmon in the Clamate have been struggling
Speaker 1: for decades, in part due to a parasitic disease called
Speaker 1: sea shasta, which has become a significant problem due to
Speaker 1: the combination of lower water warmer temperature is a lower
Speaker 1: water table, and the impacts of dams. The parasite can
Speaker 1: kill salmon of all age classes when concentrations reach a
Speaker 1: high enough level, and right now the concentrations are extremely high.
Speaker 1: This year. The fish kill began in early May, and
Speaker 1: now nineties seven percent of juvenile coho and chinook salmon
Speaker 1: are testing positive for the parasite. Of the observed juvenile
Speaker 1: fish have died. The parasite is predicted to completely wipe
Speaker 1: out an entire year class of fish whose numbers have
Speaker 1: already plummeted in the past two generations. You need to
Speaker 1: get Malik Walker out there on that real quick. He'll
Speaker 1: he'll hook him up. Sorry. Moving over to Montella, the
Speaker 1: famed Madison River, which I have fished probably more than
Speaker 1: any other body of water in the country, experienced an
Speaker 1: acute die off of whitefish, trout, and suckers amid water
Speaker 1: temps soaring into the mid seventies in June. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a bit early for that, bit early for that for
Speaker 1: you guys. Anglers also reported seeing brown trout with the
Speaker 1: telltale white markings of the Saprolena fungus, which is sometimes
Speaker 1: referred to as cotton molds. You know I'm talking about
Speaker 1: because it looks like inspected fish have these like billy
Speaker 1: white cotton bits. It's it's not good. The fungus can
Speaker 1: be fatal, especially when fish experience other stressors like elevated
Speaker 1: water temps. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks instituted what are
Speaker 1: known as hoot owl restrictions early this year on the
Speaker 1: lower Madisone, meaning that anglers cannot fish from two pm
Speaker 1: to midnight. A string of consistently warm summers has greatly
Speaker 1: diminished the trout population on that streat to the river,
Speaker 1: especially brown trout, whose numbers are at fifty of the
Speaker 1: twenty year average. I will not be fishing the Lower
Speaker 1: Madison at all, no matter what time it is, until
Speaker 1: temps get below sixty five degrees, and I hope that
Speaker 1: other people will consider doing the same. Crossing over into Minnesota,
Speaker 1: the dn R is reporting piles of dead fish washing
Speaker 1: up on the shores of some lakes across the northern
Speaker 1: part of the state and even into the Minneapolis suburbs.
Speaker 1: According to Tom Bury, a limnologist who worked for the
Speaker 1: Minnesota dn R, quote, this is a rare occurrence. We
Speaker 1: have such extreme drought conditions right now. Bury also said
Speaker 1: that rapidly warming water temperatures are putting stress on fish
Speaker 1: and making them more susceptible to infections. Cruis it on
Speaker 1: down to Kansas City. Bush Creek lost an estimated fifty
Speaker 1: two thousand fish so far this summer, after oxygen levels
Speaker 1: dropped to one part per million, which according to the
Speaker 1: local fish biologist, Jake Klaur, is lethal to nearly every fish.
Speaker 1: For context, five parts per million is considered good oxygen
Speaker 1: saturation for most warm water fish in the summer. The
Speaker 1: vast majority of the fish that died were sunfish, but
Speaker 1: common and silver carp also went the up, and if
Speaker 1: carper dying, yeah, that's not good. You know, it's bad.
Speaker 1: That's not good. While fish skills happened nearly every summer
Speaker 1: in this creek, this year is the worst coal hour
Speaker 1: has ever seen. To be fair, though, this is an urban,
Speaker 1: paved water system, So while it's concerning, it's it's not
Speaker 1: the tragic like saying that we're seeing over on the planet.
Speaker 1: In Madison. Scooting over to Delaware, two hundred thousand juvenile
Speaker 1: menhaden died in Rehoboth Bay as a result of low
Speaker 1: levels of dissolved oxygen. Chris Basin, executive director for the
Speaker 1: Delaware Center for Inland Bays, describes Rehobeth as a very
Speaker 1: unhealthy estuary. Miles and miles of concrete canals were cut
Speaker 1: into the bay to allow for easier boat passage and docking,
Speaker 1: which destroyed the natural salt marshes. Whereas those marshes were
Speaker 1: historically flushed by tidal flow, nutrient and toxin lade runoff
Speaker 1: from lawns and agriculture now gets trapped in the canals,
Speaker 1: which leads to massive fish kills like this one. And
Speaker 1: finally we land in Florida, where it seems like fish
Speaker 1: are dying just about everywhere. Many of Florida's fish are
Speaker 1: dying for the same reasons as in other parts of
Speaker 1: the country, lack of dissolved oxygen exacerbated by alba blooms.
Speaker 1: But while in much of the country these blooms are
Speaker 1: being caused by midsummer drought and heat, Florida's algae tends
Speaker 1: to bloom when rains flush fertilizer into lakes, rivers, estuaries,
Speaker 1: and bays, and Florida is just starting their rainy season.
Speaker 1: On the west side, The coastlines north of Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: are littered with fish carcasses as a red tide moves
Speaker 1: up out of the bay. An Emergency Services regional manager
Speaker 1: told The Tampa Bay Times that his crews were removing
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty cubic feet of fish parts, or
Speaker 1: enough to fill two commercial dumpsters every day. This red
Speaker 1: tide and related fish kill have not yet reached the
Speaker 1: catastrophic levels of eighteen when much of Florida's west coast
Speaker 1: was coated in dead marine life, but the red tide
Speaker 1: season still young, we still might get there. This part
Speaker 1: of the state hasn't yet received the kind of significant
Speaker 1: rainfall that usually precipitates a major red tide event. So
Speaker 1: it's it's a little confusing, but I have an idea
Speaker 1: that might explain what's going on. The researchers are not
Speaker 1: yet able to make a definitive link. This bloom comes
Speaker 1: just months after the Piney Point incident we reported on
Speaker 1: holding ponds discharged nearly two million gallons of wastewater into
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay, adding the equivalent to about a hundred thousand
Speaker 1: bags of fertilizer into the water, and that bite have
Speaker 1: something to do with the red tide bloom. Maybe sticking
Speaker 1: with the algal bloom theme. Over in Boka, Ratne one
Speaker 1: thousand dead shed washed up on the banks of Sabal Lake.
Speaker 1: Once again. The culprit here was a lack of dissolved
Speaker 1: oxygen due to a prolonged drought followed by the season's
Speaker 1: first rains, which also contributed to a blue green algae
Speaker 1: bloom and an outbreak of Ciono bacteria around West Palm
Speaker 1: Beach that's currently threatening the health and safety of public
Speaker 1: drinking water. And finally, finishing this doom and gloom story
Speaker 1: on Florida's East coast, just stop that might not have
Speaker 1: anything to do with dissolve oxygen. For once, scores of
Speaker 1: colorful tropical reef fish like trigger fish, parrot fish, and
Speaker 1: angel fish are washing up on Palm Beach. The exact
Speaker 1: causes of this fish kill have not been announced, but
Speaker 1: divers in the area report that water temperatures dropped twenty
Speaker 1: degrees from the mid eighties to the mid sixties in
Speaker 1: less than a week. Such erratic shifts are rare, but
Speaker 1: can happen when winds, currents, and eddies conspire to cause
Speaker 1: what are known as upwellings. The previous week, a strong
Speaker 1: current from the north was passing the outer edge of
Speaker 1: the reef, which may have contributed to the stark temperature change.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I missed a couple of fish die off catastrophes,
Speaker 1: and if I missed one of the ones in your area,
Speaker 1: let us know where. You're not catching fish anymore, I apologize.
Speaker 1: There are so many I can't keep track of them all.
Speaker 1: When I was talking to my wife about this, uh,
Speaker 1: she asked me less. She was like, what's what's your
Speaker 1: takeaway going to be? And how are you going to
Speaker 1: make this? You know, I'm struggling with that myself, but
Speaker 1: I'll go ahead, and the answer is simple, I'm not Yeah,
Speaker 1: this really isn't funny. You like reporting like you're reporting
Speaker 1: this out of a job, is what you're doing. Like
Speaker 1: three weeks from now will be like our new store
Speaker 1: will be like we talked to the one guy that
Speaker 1: caught a fish in the United States of America, going
Speaker 1: to him live. I felt the need like this was
Speaker 1: such a pervasive theme. I felt the need to jam
Speaker 1: I'm not not even doing it. This is news and this,
Speaker 1: this ship is happening. I saw a bunch of these
Speaker 1: two and I feel like the reason I didn't grab
Speaker 1: one is because I'm like, well, which one, Like it's
Speaker 1: it's all the same thing. But you did it the
Speaker 1: right way, you did the journalistic way, and you've covered
Speaker 1: them all. That does not make it any less depressing. No,
Speaker 1: don't feel any more excited to do my next story,
Speaker 1: which is done in a takeaway ahead. Yeah, my, my, my, my,
Speaker 1: go ahead, if you gotta take away hit it. All
Speaker 1: I was gonna say was, look, look, these droughts and
Speaker 1: these fish kills are what they are. There's not a
Speaker 1: ton in the like we can do to stop that
Speaker 1: right now. But I will say, um, you know you
Speaker 1: were talking about the Madison in particular, and then shutting
Speaker 1: them down the fishing there. Um, you know, summer is
Speaker 1: fishing time. We all love to go fishing in the summer.
Speaker 1: Everybody does it, That's what we're all about. But I
Speaker 1: really don't think that enough people pay much mind to
Speaker 1: fish care when it's hot, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like that's and and just very very quickly, like the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks, I've been floating to Delaware here
Speaker 1: with my dad and taking my kids out, and I've
Speaker 1: been just taking out this old nasty shad that I
Speaker 1: had in the freezer, and I'm trying to catch channel cats, right,
Speaker 1: I just wanted. We're swimming and having a good time
Speaker 1: and just like trying to reef on a few channel cats,
Speaker 1: and I can only catch stripers. And it's very late
Speaker 1: in the summer for there to be as many stripers
Speaker 1: as there are this side this size, in this part
Speaker 1: of the river eating shad. And that's great to catch them,
Speaker 1: but every single one of them, I've had to spend
Speaker 1: at least five minutes reviving them so that they can
Speaker 1: swim back to the bottom of this cold run that
Speaker 1: they're apparently sitting in you know what I mean, And
Speaker 1: you know looking at that going like, well, man, it's
Speaker 1: so neat to be doing this this time of year.
Speaker 1: But I mean you could physically see it, like you
Speaker 1: pull them out of these runs they're sitting in and
Speaker 1: they're whooped. I mean that water is seventy five degrees now. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think that in general, even with quote warm
Speaker 1: water species, large mouth muskies in particular pipe, um, take
Speaker 1: that extra time even if they fought hard. I mean,
Speaker 1: give them, make sure that they're they're going back breathing
Speaker 1: and strong and kicking off on their own. Because I
Speaker 1: don't think we think enough about how hot water affects fish.
Speaker 1: That's all I got to say. No, your takeaways very
Speaker 1: very similar to mine. Um, And I think that we
Speaker 1: all I think. For a long time, I won't speak
Speaker 1: for other people. For a long time, I sort of
Speaker 1: fell like, well, summertime is my fishing time, and and
Speaker 1: that's the time you're you're allowed to fish and supposed fish.
Speaker 1: And as I've learned more, especially about cold water species,
Speaker 1: but warm water species too, muskie is a good point.
Speaker 1: Those things are delicate. I'm learning that that that that's
Speaker 1: not actually the case, and that it's incumbent upon me
Speaker 1: to know the conditions on the plate at the different
Speaker 1: places where I fish and make my plans accordingly. Right,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna change the way I fish this summer
Speaker 1: right for right now anyway around me, this part just
Speaker 1: just kind of is pertinent to me. I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna fish way higher up in the systems. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: fish the tiny little creeks and high mountain lakes where
Speaker 1: it's still cold, right, instead of the big rivers with
Speaker 1: the big fish. I'm gonna go. If I want to
Speaker 1: catch and release, I'm gonna go up into the high
Speaker 1: creeks um And if I do fish those larger rivers
Speaker 1: and lakes, right, I'm I'm selectively targeting fish I intend
Speaker 1: to harvest because that's the way to do it right
Speaker 1: for a while. Anyway, catching release of of vulnerable species
Speaker 1: is out for me, And that may sound counterintuitive, but
Speaker 1: it's just not ethical in a lot of places a lot,
Speaker 1: and I feel the same way. I'm either gonna have
Speaker 1: to find some new channel cats spots where there's actually
Speaker 1: channel cats. But you know, I'm fishing these usual places
Speaker 1: where I know the cats are in the summer and
Speaker 1: there's just this abundance of stripers there. But I feel
Speaker 1: bad to the point where like I'm like I should
Speaker 1: just I'm gonna stop doing that for a while, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And just they're there for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: and they're comfortable in this particular run, you know, just
Speaker 1: just leave them there. Um. And that's the thing I
Speaker 1: think people don't realize. Yes, you let that fish go,
Speaker 1: it swims away, but it's not going to survive. You
Speaker 1: just get to avoid the uncomfortable confrontation of the reality
Speaker 1: of how many fish are killing. Right. So any fish
Speaker 1: I'm catching the major rivers, they're going, they're going to
Speaker 1: the smoker. And once I get all I want to
Speaker 1: eat that day, I'm gonna stop fishing. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: fish earlier in the day, just pay attention to those. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: if it's hot midday, I'm going carpet fishing. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do. That's that's my solution. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of a transition here, and I guess we can.
Speaker 1: We can go from uh a country where where a
Speaker 1: whole lot of fisher die, into another distant country where
Speaker 1: where one is just emerged and just one out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: And I also think the story is a complete lie.
Speaker 1: So this is a short and dumb story. But I
Speaker 1: flagged it literally because I think it is fabricated. I
Speaker 1: literally think some website or rag paper was short on
Speaker 1: a story and like through darts at a board and
Speaker 1: put them all together and landed on this. Okay, uh
Speaker 1: So I grabbed it from perth now dot com and
Speaker 1: the headline is um testicle eating pacu fish found lurking
Speaker 1: in European waters. Yeah. Yeah, right. So now just based
Speaker 1: on that, you might say, okay, maybe because people all
Speaker 1: over the world dump exotics where they're not supposed to be, right,
Speaker 1: and your Europe is pretty large. It's fair, it's fairly large, um,
Speaker 1: And I mean there's plenty of places in Europe that
Speaker 1: could sustain a paku for a while at least especially
Speaker 1: in summer um. And these fish are, of course, they're
Speaker 1: native to the Amazon, to the rainforest, and they're kind of,
Speaker 1: I would say, becoming sort of a posh fly target.
Speaker 1: Do you agree with that? I think the only thing
Speaker 1: because people want golden dorato, but then they get there
Speaker 1: and they can't find the golden round. So the guys
Speaker 1: like here, you go catch one of these. I think
Speaker 1: that's how that happened. Fair, fair, So if you don't
Speaker 1: know what they are, they look like a giant piranha.
Speaker 1: In fact, they might be related. I don't know that
Speaker 1: for sure, but they look like a big piranha. Um,
Speaker 1: but they have instead of sharp piranha teeth, they have
Speaker 1: more human like teeth. And they're vegetarians, right, um, so
Speaker 1: guys on the fly they catch them on like you know,
Speaker 1: things that look like floating nuts and seeds and flowers
Speaker 1: and ship um. Anyway, anyway, they're They're also sometimes referred
Speaker 1: to as the ball cutter fish because they have been
Speaker 1: known to mistake the testicles of unfortunate swimmers for tree
Speaker 1: nuts in the water. And like, I've never heard that.
Speaker 1: Oh really, I've never heard the testicle lunching story. Yeah yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: now here's the how I've heard this a ton. I'm
Speaker 1: very shocked you've never heard that before. Um now, now,
Speaker 1: how often does that really happen? I'm guessing not that much,
Speaker 1: like maybe a couple of times, right, But like it
Speaker 1: was Jeremy Wade that basically built the entire River Monsters
Speaker 1: franchise out of telling you it happens a hundred times
Speaker 1: a day, you know what. I It's like every thirteen
Speaker 1: point four seconds, another man one of his nuts to
Speaker 1: a packu. Right. But regardless, Um, this is the thing
Speaker 1: that the media has latched onto, the ball cutting, which
Speaker 1: is why I'm shocked you haven't heard it. But here's
Speaker 1: where this story gets odd. Okay. According to the story,
Speaker 1: the European pacu in question was caught by fisherman and
Speaker 1: R Lingren off the coast of Sweden. What right, And
Speaker 1: there's two very there's two very big things wrong with
Speaker 1: this facca refreshwater fish. That's number one. That's a big one.
Speaker 1: That's a big that's the first big red flag waving
Speaker 1: out there. Right. Um. But but also, while I might
Speaker 1: buy a pacu being caught in like the south of
Speaker 1: France or some river in sudden Italy, perhaps like Sweden,
Speaker 1: the maximum high temperature, because I researched at at midday
Speaker 1: in summer in Sweden it's seventy three degrees So I
Speaker 1: find it hard to believe that a pacu would last
Speaker 1: in any water there, let alone salt water, which they
Speaker 1: cannot be in ever. Um. But as I found this
Speaker 1: story in three places, Um. One ran a picture of
Speaker 1: a piranha, so that was totally out, and the other
Speaker 1: to show they show a pacu, but they're clearly taken
Speaker 1: in South America, so I'm not seeing any photographic evidence
Speaker 1: of this, this alleged Swedish pacu. But wait, because they
Speaker 1: did bring in an expert in the story to tell
Speaker 1: us absolutely nothing. So here's a quote. Henrik Carl, from
Speaker 1: Denmark's Natural History Museum told local media the pacu is
Speaker 1: not normally dangerous to people, but it has quite a
Speaker 1: serious bite there, but incidents in other countries where some
Speaker 1: men have had their testicles bitten off. Carl added that
Speaker 1: the pacu fishes are largely vegetarian and nip away at
Speaker 1: those in the water only because they are hungry. He said,
Speaker 1: they bite because they're hungry and testicles sit nicely in
Speaker 1: their mouth. And I say, Henry, Henrick, you always you
Speaker 1: always know just how to put things so as claves understand.
Speaker 1: So then the story just goes goes on to make
Speaker 1: jokes about Swedish meatballs or sweetie meats as I like
Speaker 1: to call them, and ends on something about kimono dragons
Speaker 1: being equally dangerous. So great job ridding the frigid salt
Speaker 1: waters off Sweden of that one ball cutter in our Lingren,
Speaker 1: who I don't think actually exists. So there's there's my
Speaker 1: second story, which hopefully we gotta we got a little
Speaker 1: laugh after the piles of dead fish from that man.
Speaker 1: I've got to say we have. We have dug up
Speaker 1: some absolutely horrendous fish journalism in nearly a year we've
Speaker 1: been doing this. I think this one wins what's up there.
Speaker 1: I think it's completely I don't find the ball biting
Speaker 1: thing to begin with, right, but I get that that's
Speaker 1: a that's a lore about these fish. Okay, fine, ball biting.
Speaker 1: But then you add in those other two completely implausible
Speaker 1: elements of a freshwater fish living in saltwater and a
Speaker 1: warm water fish living in frigid water, and then you
Speaker 1: get the poor dude from the Natural History Museum. You
Speaker 1: bait him into talking about how testicles fit so nicely
Speaker 1: in their mouths, like that poor guy's career. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: they threw it and they said it hit fish testicles Sweden,
Speaker 1: and they just went from there. I actually hope that's true,
Speaker 1: because then it's creative. Those were the three elements. Do
Speaker 1: you have another story Todair. Do you put it? Put it?
Speaker 1: I put it all in my round up? Alright, alright,
Speaker 1: so Phil, that's quite a round up to go through.
Speaker 1: If you're feeling morbid today, Miles is the clear winner.
Speaker 1: If you're feeling more jokey, I guess I'm your guy.
Speaker 1: But regardless, after we hear from Phil, we're actually gonna
Speaker 1: do a fin clips, which once again brings more testicles
Speaker 1: into this podcast. You guys, supply the testicles, I'll supply
Speaker 1: the dick. So here I am to announce that the
Speaker 1: winner this week is Miles Nulty. I know you guys
Speaker 1: are saying it's impossible that the South American fish was
Speaker 1: found in Sweden, and I'm inclined to believe you. But
Speaker 1: sometimes I go to Burger King and I get in
Speaker 1: order of fries and I find an onion ring in
Speaker 1: those fries. Magic is real, guys. It's all around us,
Speaker 1: and someday, if you're lucky, you might just find some
Speaker 1: of that magic off the coast of Sweden, with its
Speaker 1: fish lips around your scrotum as small mouth baits go
Speaker 1: helgra mites get a lot of attention. Matter of fact,
Speaker 1: we did an entire end the line segment about the
Speaker 1: many moons ago, because those big, black, nasty, pinching Dobson
Speaker 1: fly larvae just have this uncanny ability to get eaten
Speaker 1: by a small mouth, even in a place where you
Speaker 1: didn't know small mouth existed. Crayfish are good for small mouth,
Speaker 1: and of course you can't really go wrong with a
Speaker 1: live shiner. But there's another bait that's talked about less often.
Speaker 1: In fact, I might call it somewhat hush hush. That's
Speaker 1: closer in effectiveness to those helgram mites than a shiner
Speaker 1: or a crayfish could ever be. I'm talking about mad
Speaker 1: Tom catfish. When you talk about mad tom catfish, or
Speaker 1: stone cats, as they're also called, you're not talking about
Speaker 1: one specific fish. These are members of the Ichtluridae family,
Speaker 1: which is the most species rich family of catfish in
Speaker 1: North America. Now, if you're a science geek, you can
Speaker 1: spend all day breaking them down. Just to name a few,
Speaker 1: you've got the mountain mad Tom, slender Matt Tom, Caroline
Speaker 1: and mad Tom, elegant Mad Tom, ozark mad Tom, and
Speaker 1: the brindle mad Tom. The thing is, for the most part,
Speaker 1: you'd never be able to tell one apart from the
Speaker 1: other using what ich theologists call moristic traits like the
Speaker 1: number of fins or scales or morphometrics, which is a
Speaker 1: fancy way of saying size and shape of the body. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: because mad tom coloring is often dictated by its environment,
Speaker 1: the freckle belly mad tom you got might actually be
Speaker 1: a brown mad tom or a margin mad tom. Now,
Speaker 1: if there's anyone listening, going, what the actual hell is
Speaker 1: he talking about? I fish, I know catfish, but I've
Speaker 1: never heard of a mad tom. Well, that's probably because
Speaker 1: you've never accidentally caught one. That would be extremely difficult
Speaker 1: unless you were micro fishing, because mad tom's are super tiny.
Speaker 1: An absolute slab would measure eight inches, and you're not
Speaker 1: likely to bump into one at your favorite pay lake.
Speaker 1: Mad tom's prefer moving water and can be found in
Speaker 1: everything from mighty rivers to tiny creeks. As long as
Speaker 1: there's a rocky bottom. Mad tom slip under rocks and
Speaker 1: slide into tiny crevices where they spend most of their day.
Speaker 1: These little fellers are nocturnal, so the best way to
Speaker 1: collect some for bait is to have a good old
Speaker 1: fashioned rock flipping session with a dip net or sane
Speaker 1: net posted up downstream to catch whatever you kick up.
Speaker 1: Fun fact, though, be careful because mad tom's are slippery, slimy,
Speaker 1: and wriggley, and they have spines sharper than a hypodermic
Speaker 1: needle that will inject you with venom. You won't wind
Speaker 1: up in the hospital or anything, but you won't be
Speaker 1: happy for a while. And I know because I've been there, man,
Speaker 1: I've been there. I also once knew of a guy
Speaker 1: that was collecting mad tom's and putting them in a
Speaker 1: zip block bag, which he then put in the front
Speaker 1: pocket of his shorts, which resulted in a mad time
Speaker 1: spine to the Franks and beans. This may leave you wondering, then,
Speaker 1: if they're all spiny and poisonous and ship, why do
Speaker 1: small mouths pounce on them? And I really don't have
Speaker 1: an answer to that, but they do. I can't count
Speaker 1: the number of Smalley's I've caught that either spit up
Speaker 1: a mad tom or had one sticking out of its throat,
Speaker 1: And over the years I've caught plenty of mad tom'ss
Speaker 1: bike match wal Nett and crayfish, but never really enough
Speaker 1: to fill up a bucket. So similarly to helgram mintes.
Speaker 1: Using one is kind of like a rare treat, also
Speaker 1: similar to helgra mintes. I can't recall if I've ever
Speaker 1: hung one under a float on a summer day and
Speaker 1: not how to get child by a bass. You will
Speaker 1: find some Mad Tom imitations available, but to the best
Speaker 1: of my knowledge, gets its baby blue eyes. Swim Bait
Speaker 1: was the first specific Mad Tim imitator on the market,
Speaker 1: and I know it's pretty hard to find, and I
Speaker 1: also know it had a bit of a cult following,
Speaker 1: but I've never gotten anything to follow one of mine.
Speaker 1: Years ago, I snatched up a few packs when I
Speaker 1: bumped into them randomly and quickly lost all of them
Speaker 1: in the rocks while trying to slow crawl them to
Speaker 1: you know, mimic a Mad Tom. Frankly, I think it's
Speaker 1: more fun trying to collect the real ones, and I'm
Speaker 1: a lot more confident that the real ones spines venom
Speaker 1: at all will lead to a big bronze back faster
Speaker 1: than any anatomically correct mini catfish lore. You know, right,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a bunch of streamer dudes out there
Speaker 1: right at this very moment wondering like how am I
Speaker 1: gonna how am I gonna tie Mad Dog Like they're
Speaker 1: googling Mad Dog anatomy and trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to make it, and they found that. I guaranteed it's
Speaker 1: already been done. Like you know those um uh, those
Speaker 1: those sculping heads, the flat fish call. Yeah, it's the
Speaker 1: fish call, but it's the sculping head. Yeah. I've seen
Speaker 1: people tie in rubber legs in front of those to
Speaker 1: create whiskers. But honestly, I don't know, man, I can't
Speaker 1: see that being any more effective than other streamers. Like
Speaker 1: I think mad Tom's are a rare forage. If this
Speaker 1: makes sense, that's just not worth trying to mimic perfectly,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like fishing a brown tube
Speaker 1: or a yellow cloudser in the rocks is sufficient, there's
Speaker 1: no need to try and match one so precisely. But
Speaker 1: if you expose a real one, right, and that fish
Speaker 1: season smells a libby, that's just it's like it's not
Speaker 1: hold up under a rock. It's just floating around out
Speaker 1: there like free for the taking. It's eight. It's just
Speaker 1: like how they can't pass up and exposed helgramite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can see that. Yeah, Generally, I think anatomically perfect
Speaker 1: bait fishing. Streamers are over overrated because they're moving fast.
Speaker 1: But I guess we can't help everyone out there figure
Speaker 1: out how to get more mad tim flies stuck in
Speaker 1: smaller faces. But we can, well, I say, we you
Speaker 1: can help with stripers. I don't actually claim to know
Speaker 1: shit about stripers because I've I've caught like two in
Speaker 1: my life. But we opened this episode talking about losing
Speaker 1: giant fish, so it only seems right that we close
Speaker 1: with a negative wisdom that will help prevent that from happening. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna finish out with our tackle hacks segment
Speaker 1: this week, and uh, we're we're bringing back our old pal,
Speaker 1: Bill Wetzel. Bill is a legendary surfishing guide on Long Island.
Speaker 1: He leads people into the rocks and waves at night,
Speaker 1: which we've both agreed is one of the toughest guide
Speaker 1: gigs on the planet, you know, because you put yourself
Speaker 1: in such precarious positions, right, and Bill understands the importance
Speaker 1: of making sure in those situations you've dotted every eye
Speaker 1: so you don't lose that giant and striper when it
Speaker 1: hits um. So I got to sit down with Bill
Speaker 1: for this tip and look at maybe coming to you
Speaker 1: from a a salty Northeast surf dude, but I promise
Speaker 1: it has value wherever you chase Striper's snook, bull reds,
Speaker 1: perhaps even muskies. I'm getting hats from inside the city
Speaker 1: Blight the Blood. So joining us again, Bill Wetzel, surf
Speaker 1: Guide Extraordinary from from New York, and we've had you
Speaker 1: on for smooth moves on other shows that were just delightful.
Speaker 1: So as much as I just want you to tell
Speaker 1: us stories about crazy ship that's happened in the surf um,
Speaker 1: you are also an incredibly knowledgeable angler in this scene.
Speaker 1: So uh, let's try to tackle hacks man. You know,
Speaker 1: we're just looking for that sort of nugget of wisdom
Speaker 1: you've picked up or developed or something within in Striper's
Speaker 1: surf fishing that maybe you think guys don't think about
Speaker 1: enough or or or don't do something to just help
Speaker 1: people catch more fish. So one of the things I
Speaker 1: tell a lot of people to do is, I mean,
Speaker 1: what what the catcher release thing? A lot of people
Speaker 1: are starting to even use single hooks, but I still
Speaker 1: use a trouble in the front and the trouble in
Speaker 1: the back. I feel like I dropped less fish doing that.
Speaker 1: With plugs we're talking about, right, Yeah what plugs? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just fish plugs. I fish live yield as well,
Speaker 1: but I don't do any dead sticking anything like that.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I tell people is to
Speaker 1: crush your barbs in the rear. And immediately when I
Speaker 1: tell people that, they say, oh, for the blue fish,
Speaker 1: I go now for the stripe pass for the blue
Speaker 1: fish too. If you get in the bite, it's easier.
Speaker 1: But what what a bass does. He'll hit the front
Speaker 1: of the plug, usually right, and then the rear of
Speaker 1: the plug will be caught in the side or depending
Speaker 1: on how big the basses, maybe he's like lower lip
Speaker 1: and hopefully that plug that Steve barb will get that
Speaker 1: initial hook set and then as he's fighting will come out.
Speaker 1: Now when it does that, he only has the front
Speaker 1: hook in his mouth and it helps for him not
Speaker 1: to get leverage on the plug just and then if
Speaker 1: they get leverage on your plugs, spit the plug. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Got you? So you're saying, if
Speaker 1: you only have those front trebles in the fish's mouth
Speaker 1: and you're pulling against just a very well set front treble.
Speaker 1: You have a better shot of landing a big fish
Speaker 1: than if you're also pulling awkwardly because that rear travel
Speaker 1: is in the face somewhere the gills the lower lips
Speaker 1: right because they'll get you know, they'll get lover each
Speaker 1: on your pluck. And you know that's how you know
Speaker 1: you're straighten out your hooks. I don't care what kind
Speaker 1: of hook you have, it they'll straighten it out, especially
Speaker 1: a big fish. No, they'll straighten out the hook. This
Speaker 1: is a game for for for for this cult where
Speaker 1: you put in hours and years and months looking for
Speaker 1: those big fish. So I think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that small tips like that make a difference, Like this
Speaker 1: is one where you don't know when you're gonna get
Speaker 1: that big fish shot again. So every duck should be
Speaker 1: in a row for this fishery. It's the tiny things, man,
Speaker 1: it's the tiny, tiny things. And some of the tiny
Speaker 1: people overthink some things, and they spend so much time
Speaker 1: on overthinking that they're not you know, and they're not fishing,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You know, just go out
Speaker 1: there and fish, man, that's it. You You use plugs,
Speaker 1: you learn all the plugs out there. Learn, learn when
Speaker 1: to use them, when not to use them. Learn how
Speaker 1: they work. You know, do it in comp situations, rough situations,
Speaker 1: you know, all kinds of situations. How you got it,
Speaker 1: How you learn that plug? Learn it and then move
Speaker 1: on to the next plug. If you're just starting now,
Speaker 1: you know it's gonna take you a few years. It's
Speaker 1: not freaking Internet overnight ship, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So that's it for this week. To recap all the
Speaker 1: trophies that didn't get away, Miles landed himself a visit
Speaker 1: to the doctor to get his hearing check. We filled
Speaker 1: a cooler with a killer bait that might sting you
Speaker 1: in your naughty bits, beached facts about one trouble hook
Speaker 1: being better than two, and hung replica amounts of our
Speaker 1: shame and suffering up for the Internet to enjoy. That
Speaker 1: We did that we did enjoy. Uh. Speaking of which,
Speaker 1: if you've got a shameful or awkward fishing photo that
Speaker 1: you're willing to own up to, send it to Bent
Speaker 1: at the media dot com so we can ridicule you
Speaker 1: bluckly we can all use together. We're also always accepting
Speaker 1: bar nominations, sale bin items, questions, concerns, hot tips, and
Speaker 1: cold ridicule. If you send us any of those and
Speaker 1: we use them on the show, you get a sticker pack.
Speaker 1: Of course, you can also score that by using those
Speaker 1: degenerate Angler and Bent Podcasts hashtags on Instagram. If we
Speaker 1: repost something with those tags, that that you've posted your stickered.
Speaker 1: And if you happen to post a picture of a
Speaker 1: slob fish you caught with a guide, tag him or
Speaker 1: her too, because you're obviously a good listener. M six
Speaker 1: s